Trump's presidential immunity: Democrats want you to forget, for one, that Obama played the tyrant when he assassinated an American citizen in Yemen in 2011 by drone without due process of law

 

And it wasn't just Anwar al-Awlaki, born in New Mexico.

Obama assassinated three other American citizens, in the same and two other strikes.

Y'all just let that slide because you liked Obama.

 

 . . . the Obama administration never charged al-Awlaki with a crime or even presented concrete evidence of his guilt . . . his targeted killing left American citizens with little more than the proposition that we are supposed to simply trust the president and the executive branch when they use secret intelligence to accuse an American citizen of terrorism and then claim the right to kill that individual without judicial scrutiny. 

More.

 

The New York Times, May 2013, after Obama was safely re-elected:

In his letter to Congressional leaders, Mr. Holder confirmed that the administration had deliberately killed Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical Muslim cleric who died in a drone strike in September 2011 in Yemen. Mr. Holder also wrote that United States forces had killed three other Americans who “were not specifically targeted.” . . . Mr. Holder confirmed the government’s role in the deaths of Samir Khan, who was killed in the same strike, and Mr. Awlaki’s son, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, who died in another strike. The letter disclosed the death of a fourth American named Jude Kenan Mohammad but gave no further details.

Obama's EPA caused the Gold King Mine Disaster, Biden's Forest Service set the Hermits Peak Fire in New Mexico destroying over 400 homes and Biden's FEMA has botched the response

And people wonder why many Hispanics who were affected by these disasters are cooling on the Democrat Party.

Neither incident was much publicized by the media at the time because both were highly embarrassing to the media's Democrat men in power for the sheer scale of the incompetence on display, but there'd be no end of stories about these incidents had Trump been president.

Of the New Mexico fire I hardly remember any news a year ago.

A recent Slate story which attacks the religious groups actually making a difference in such disasters can't omit some details, they are so undeniable:

 Wildfires ripped through the northern part of the state after a prescribed burn by the U.S. Forest Service grew out of control, tearing through nearly 350,000 acres and destroying hundreds of homes, farms, and irrigation canals that had sustained its rural communities for centuries. . . . the actions of the Federal Emergency Management Agency left New Mexicans infuriated. . . . Even after the Biden administration greenlighted $2.5 billion in wildfire recovery funds for New Mexico last summer—an unprecedented sum for an ongoing disaster—FEMA’s molasses-paced bureaucracy has kept much of that money from actually reaching those affected by the wildfires. Edwards said in an email that the agency is opening three new claims offices in New Mexico by late March [nearly a year later] and is developing new policies to “guide and simplify the claims process.” But while many New Mexicans have sympathy for FEMA and feel the agency is in an impossible position, they want relief now so they can rebuild their houses and lives. 

Reuters in July 2022 said this in "After Starting New Mexico Fire, U.S. Asks Victims To Pay":

 After the U.S. government started the largest wildfire in New Mexico's recorded history in April, it is asking victims to share recovery costs on private land, jeopardizing relief efforts, according to residents and state officials. The blaze was sparked by U.S. Forest Service (USFS) prescribed fires to reduce wildfire risk. The burns went out of control after a series of missteps, torching 432 residences and over 530 square miles (1373 square km) of mostly privately owned forests and meadows, much of it held by members of centuries-old Indo-Hispano ranching communities.

The gist of this story at the end of March is that an awful lot of people are still not made whole despite billions of dollars being allocated for them:

A lawsuit seeking unspecified damages was filed in June against the U.S. Forest Service in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque. Originally, about 50 plaintiffs were party to the suit, but hundreds more later joined. The lawsuit was dismissed after the Hermits Peak Fire Assistance Act was passed, which will help compensate people who suffered damages.     

But hey, at least Donald Trump is being prosecuted, right?

The variant tracker at Axios now shows Delta prevalence of 50% or more in only thirteen states, Omicron in sixteen

Delta:

 

Maine 63.1%

West Virginia 54.8%

Kentucky 54.6%

Indiana 50.5%

Michigan 53.4%

Minnesota 56.2%

Iowa 57.2%

Missouri 54%

Kansas 55.1%

South Dakota 58%

North Dakota 51.6%

New Mexico 50.7%

Alaska 55.2%

Omicron:

New York 55.5%

New Jersey 54.5%

Maryland 53.1%

Wyoming 61.3%

Montana 61.8%

Washington 56.1%

Oregon 52.5%

Hawaii 74.4%

Texas 70.9%

Louisiana 79.3%

Tennessee 53.3%

South Carolina 56.1%

Georgia 72.4%

Alabama 61.8%

Mississippi 54.3%

Florida 73.8%

Axios.

In the last three months Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, and Michigan have led the way in daily new deaths.

In daily new deaths per 100k of population the leaders have been Tennessee, Michigan, Missouri, and Ohio.

New Mexico's Senator Lujan, hospitalized for a stroke, was vaccinated way back in December 2020, so it's a real stretch to connect the two

 Yeah, I'm talking to you, Alex.

The National Popular Vote Compact, an end run around the US Constitution which also creates faithless electors, is actually supported in Michigan by stupid Republicans and a Hillsdale college instructor

My lunatic former state senator, Dave Hildenbrand, was the chief Republican sponsor of the compact in 2018. He's a lobbyist now.

The former state GOP Chair Saul Anuzis is a huge supporter and consultant to the NPV organization.

You can read all about such fools here and here.

Because the Republican controlled lower chamber has blocked a bill to make it the law since 2018, supporters of NPV are now organizing an end run . . . around THEM.

They intend to make this a ballot initiative, which in Michigan has been the go-to method for deciding hot topics to which elected representatives don't want their names attached through legislation. The method has been the way they wash their hands of issues instead of having the courage to take a stand for or against them.

Ballot initiatives in Michigan should have been curbed long ago, but when you have a spine made of jello, you can't curb anything.

So, given the success of Democrats in 2018 sweeping state offices and a handful of left of center ballot initiatives with them, quietly promoted by Barack Obama's wingman,  Eric Holder, and backed by money from George Soros, it looks like a fait accompli already.

Michigan Republicans are too dumb and too libertarian to stop this.

The only hope is that the US Supreme Court will eventually rule the NPV unconstitutional, given the fact that it has already ruled that faithless electors must award their Electoral College votes to the certified winner of a state wherever such laws require it, not to whomever they want:

The U.S. Supreme Court has unanimously upheld laws across the country that remove or punish rogue Electoral College delegates who refuse to cast their votes for the presidential candidate they were pledged to support.

The decision Monday was a loss for "faithless electors," who argued that under the Constitution they have discretion to decide which candidate to support.

Writing for the court, Justice Elena Kagan, in a decision peppered with references to the Broadway show Hamilton and the TV show Veep, said Electoral College delegates have "no ground for reversing" the statewide popular vote. That, she said, "accords with the Constitution — as well as with the trust of the Nation that here, We the People rule." ...

Thirty-two states have some sort of faithless elector law, but only 15 of those remove, penalize or simply cancel the votes of the errant electors. The 15 are Michigan, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Indiana, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, Washington, California, New Mexico, South Carolina, Oklahoma and North Carolina. Although Maine has no such law, the secretary of state has said it has determined a faithless elector can be removed. ... For centuries, almost all electors have considered themselves bound to vote for the winner of the state popular vote.

More.

Trump was less popular in his own races than Republicans running for US Senate in theirs in 12 states in 2020

 Trump underperformed:

Ronchetti in New Mexico (loser)

Lummis in Wyoming

Capito in West Virginia

Cornyn in Texas

Rounds in South Dakota

Somebody you never heard of in Massachusetts (loser)

Sasse in Nebraska

Gardner in Colorado (loser)

Cotton in Arkansas

Collins in Maine

Sullivan in Alaska

Perdue in Georgia.

Imagine doing worse than three losers.

Never forget, one week before Election 2016 Trump was getting creamed in the polls in WI, MI and PA and ended up winning them all

"He's NOT going to retake WI (Clinton +5.7), Michigan (Clinton +6.7), Pennsylvania (Clinton +6), or New Mexico (Clinton +8.5)."

I said at the time, Tuesday Nov 1.

I said that it was dumb for Trump to be spending money in those states. Obviously Trump campaign internal polling must have indicated something quite different.

Today Biden is +5.5 in WI, +6.7 in MI and +7.1 in PA. 

How QAnon people think, illustrated: What do Brexit, Marxism, Maxine Waters, Mexico and New Mexico all have in common?

China, obviously.

LA Times: No construction for Trump's wall has begun anywhere because he signed border deal

If Trump had been serious about building the wall, he wouldn't have signed a border deal which ties his hands. He would have vetoed it and proceeded with the national emergency.

Had he done so, legislators would have had little choice but to pass a continuing resolution to fund the government departments threatened with a shutdown at existing levels.

That's the art of the deal, Mr. Big Stuff, but Mr. Big Stuff is all bark and no bite.

Bulldozers sit idle at border amid legal confusion over Trump’s emergency:

No construction for Trump’s wall has begun anywhere, although officials have started or completed fence replacement projects in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.

Trump, who made building a border wall a central promise of his campaign, declared the emergency on Feb. 15 to bypass Congress and shift up to $6.6 billion, mostly from the Pentagon budget, to build — or rebuild — 234 miles of fencing.

Trump acted after Congress had appropriated only $1.375 billion for 55 miles of border barrier in the Rio Grande Valley, far less than he wanted.

But the 1,169-page appropriations bill Trump signed into law when he issued his emergency declaration also contained restrictions on construction in specific towns, parks and wildlife reserves along about 150 miles of the border in the Rio Grande Valley, which is the administration’s top priority for building new barriers. The restrictions have thwarted Trump’s efforts to build a wall there, at least for now.

An aide to Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), who helped negotiate the restrictions, said it’s not clear if the terms of the spending bill would override the emergency declaration, or vice versa, leaving landowners and town officials in limbo.

Trump gaslights on New Mexico border "wall", which is bollard fencing replacing existing vehicle barrier, funded in 2017

Trump isn't building new wall like he promised made of concrete, he's just replacing existing barrier with bollard fencing.

Pres. Trump tweets about 'wall' in New Mexico:

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.- President Trump tweeted about the completion of a "powerful wall" in New Mexico. The steel wall was built in Santa Teresa. It replaced fencing that was used to prevent vehicles from crossing. According to the Washington Examiner, the money for the project came from the congressional budget in May 2017. The Washington Examiner reports the barriers are 18 to 30 feet high.

Among whites Trump 2016 underperformed Romney 2012 57%-59% overall, but crushed him with whites in eleven states and in seven to win the presidency

Mitt Romney is back, but he really ought to just zip it. He's a loser.

States where Trump 2016 (wins in red) outperformed Romney 2012 (wins in blue) among whites:

Florida 64%-61%

Indiana 64%-60%

Iowa 54%-47%

Maine 46%-40%

Michigan 57%-55%

Minnesota 50%-49%

Missouri 66%-65%

New Hampshire 48%-47%

New York 51%-49%

Ohio 62%-57%

Wisconsin 53%-51%.

Where Trump underperformed Romney Trump still won the same contests, but also reeled in Pennsylvania which Romney did not. Overall Trump won 10 states to Romney's 4, largely on improved performance among whites.

States where Romney 2012 (wins in blue) outperformed Trump 2016 (wins in red) among whites:

Arizona 66%-54%

California 53%-45%

Colorado 54%-47%

New Jersey 56%-54%

New Mexico 56%-47%

North Carolina 68%-63%

Oregon 44%-42%

Pennsylvania 57%-56%

Virginia 61%-59%

Washington 46%-40%.

Exit polling via CNN.

Trump's $5 billion request would build just 100 miles of new wall, 115 miles of replacement barrier

Ted Cruz says Trump 'won't capitulate' over $5B demand, enough for 215 miles of border wall — half of it replacement:

[T]he $5 billion the House has approved for a border wall would be enough for about 215 miles of barrier. Less than half of that — about 100 miles, mostly in South Texas — would be frontier that doesn't already have a fence. The rest would go to replace older, less-effective fencing or to build secondary fencing. ...

Senior officials from the Homeland Security Department briefed journalists Friday afternoon on what the proposed $5 billion could accomplish. Their estimate of 215 miles' worth of new and replacement fencing works out to more than $23 million a mile, on average. That's far higher than the nearly 700 miles of barrier already in place along the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border. Most of that was authorized under President George W. Bush, in the Secure Fences Act of 2006. The Government Accountability Office issued a report in 2009 that put the initial cost per mile at $2.8 to $3.9 million. But that was in urban areas, where roads were already in place. Some of the replacement fencing installed during the Trump administration has cost about $8 million a mile. The more remote the area, the higher the cost. Homeland Security officials insisted that comparisons are inappropriate. "Every mile of border is different," said one official. "It depends on the terrain" and other factors.

Since Trump took office, Congress has approved $341 million for 40 miles of replacement fencing and new gates in San Diego, New Mexico and West Texas, plus gates in the Rio Grande Valley to close gaps between existing fence. Of that, 34 miles is complete.

Earlier this year, Congress provided an additional $1.375 billion for about 84 miles of new and replacement border barrier. That includes levee wall in the Rio Grande Valley, with construction expected to start in February, plus some new wall construction in that area of South Texas, along with replacement barrier in Arizona and California. ...

When Congress authorized wall funding earlier this year, it restricted construction to designs already in use.

Marijuana legalization is the spearhead of America's anti-conservative libertarian tide and ultimately of America's decline

Eventually there will be no place left to hide from marijuana users in America. And they are going to be the end of America as we once knew it. Marijuana legalization is coming to every state in the country, for the reason that a shared version of libertarianism is now America's dominant ideology, irrespective of political party. The consequences of extreme individualism are about to assert themselves like never before. Formerly, self-control and self-denial as practised by countless millions of America's original inhabitants and their descendants had been key to making America the great country which it became. Those values made possible the hard work and savings which were the necessary predicates of that greatness. But all that is in the rear view mirror now. As Baby Boomers squandered  the achievements of their parents, their children have learned from them only too well and have drunk deep from their well of narcissism. People like this will never make the country great like it was. A country full of laid back mellow folks  will never work hard and save, nor even acknowledge its need to do so. It is not a coincidence that the most hated men in America in 2012 and 2016 didn't even drink.

Marijuana Won The Midterm Elections :

Michigan voters approved a ballot measure making their state the first in the midwest to legalize cannabis. Missouri approved an initiative to allow medical marijuana, as did Utah. Voters in several Ohio cities approved local marijuana decriminalization measures, and a number of Wisconsin counties and cities strongly approved nonbinding ballot questions calling for cannabis reform. While North Dakota's long-shot marijuana legalization measure failed, cannabis also scored a number of big victories when it came to the results of candidate races. ... In Illinois, Democrat J.B. Pritzker won the governor's race after making marijuana legalization a centerpiece of his campaign. ... Minnesota Gov.-elect Tim Walz (D) wants to "replace the current failed policy with one that creates tax revenue, grows jobs, builds opportunities for Minnesotans, protects Minnesota kids, and trusts adults to make personal decisions based on their personal freedoms." ... In New Mexico, Michelle Lujan Grisham (D), who won the governor's race, said legalizing marijuana will bring “hundreds of millions of dollars to New Mexico’s economy." In New York, while easily reelected Gov Andrew Cuomo (D) had previously expressed opposition to legalization, he more recently empaneled a working group to draft legislation to end cannabis prohibition that the legislature can consider in 2019, a prospect whose chances just got a lot better in light of the fact that Democrats took control of the state's Senate. In Wisconsin, Democrat Tony Evers supports decriminalizing marijuana and allowing medical cannabis, and says he wants to put a full marijuana legalization question before voters to decide. He ousted incumbent Gov. Scott Walker (R) on Tuesday. ... Last month, a national Gallup survey found that 66 percent of Americans support legalizing marijuana, including a clear majority of Republicans.

 

Despite giving up 7 governorships to Democrats, Republicans look set to control 27 nationwide

Democrats captured governorships in Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, and Wisconsin in Election 2018.

DeSantis narrowly defeated the radical Gillum in Florida for a Republican hold there, while Kemp appears to have staved-off gun-grabber Abrams in Georgia.

In a bad sign for Trump's immigration agenda, Kobach in Kansas lost to the Democrat in the general after only narrowly winning his own primary.

What's the matter with Kansas?

Scott Walker finally lost an election in Wisconsin, by the slimmest of margins.

Republican Rauner in Illinois got creamed by Pritzker. They'll have to erect a wall around Illinois now just to keep the people in.

Bill Schuette lost decisively in Michigan in part because the NeverTrump Republican Governor Rick Snyder wouldn't endorse him.

Drought conditions return to the southwest US, this time to Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado

Mid-July 2017

Mid-July 2018

Polling on the morning of Election 2016 in the toss-ups vs. the outcome

CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE

Florida: Trump wins by 1.4, vs. 0.2 predicted

Maine CD2: Trump wins by 9.8 with 90% counted vs. 0.5 predicted

New Hampshire: Clinton wins by 0.6 vs. 0.3 with 97% counted (!)

Nevada: Clinton wins by 2.4 vs. Trump predicted by 0.8

North Carolina: Trump wins by 3.8 vs. 1.0 predicted

Pennsylvania: Trump wins by 1.1 vs. Clinton predicted by 1.9

Colorado: Clinton wins by 2.2 with 88% counted vs. 2.9 predicted

Iowa: Trump wins by 9.4 with 99% counted vs. 3.0 predicted

Michigan: Trump winning by 0.3 vs. Clinton predicted by 3.4

Ohio: Trump wins by 8.6 vs. 3.5 predicted

Arizona: Trump wins by 4.0 with 98% counted vs. 4.0 predicted (!)

Maine: Clinton wins by 3.0 with 91% counted vs. 4.5 predicted

Georgia: Trump wins by 5.7 vs. 4.8 predicted

Virginia: Clinton wins by 4.7 with 99% counted vs. 5.0 predicted

New Mexico: Clinton wins by 8.3 vs. 5.0 predicted

Wisconsin: Trump wins by 1.0 vs. Clinton predicted by 6.5 (arguably the biggest upset of the evening)

With polls opening in about 24 hours, 12 states and one congressional district in Maine are Toss Ups

Maine confuses the math because it awards Electoral College votes by congressional district. The race is a toss-up in congressional district 2 where Trump is slightly ahead. If he wins it he gets one Electoral College vote. Congressional district 1 will go to Clinton and she will get its one EC vote, based on the polling data there. Maine is unaccountably listed twice in this table from Real Clear Politics, making it not real clear. "Maine (2)" shouldn't appear in the list, only "Maine CD2 (1)". You'll notice Wisconsin isn't in this list. Why Trump spent valuable time and resources there in the last couple of weeks I don't understand. Virginia would have made more sense, but it too is now absent from the Toss-Ups.

So, with 241 EC votes already projected in the Trump column, if Trump ran this table he'd win overwhelmingly with 320.

If Trump simply keeps what he's got but turns Florida, he wins with 270.

If he doesn't win Florida he'll have to win Pennsylvania and Colorado to win with 270.

Alternatively a win in Pennsylvania and long shot Michigan would give him 277 to win it.

Trump plans to make his last stop of the 2016 campaign tonight in Michigan, right here in Grand Rapids.

Even though polling looks slightly better in New Mexico than in Michigan, New Mexico seems like an even bigger long shot.

Trump is misspending some of his $25 million ad blitz: In Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and New Mexico in particular

Trump needs instead to spend money to retake NV, AZ, CO and NC from Hillary where she leads narrowly and shore up IA, OH, GA and FL where Trump leads narrowly.

He's NOT going to retake WI (Clinton +5.7), Michigan (Clinton +6.7), Pennsylvania (Clinton +6), or New Mexico (Clinton +8.5).

Dumb.

Story here.

Trump cleans up, sweeps California, New Jersey, Montana, New Mexico and South Dakota averaging 74% of the popular vote

Recycling the story from March, presidential candidate Gary Johnson doubles down on libertarianism being of the left not of the right

Former Republican Governor of New Mexico Gary Johnson, running as the Libertarian Party candidate for president, quoted here:

"[L]ibertarians agree with socialism as long as it’s voluntary”.